Why was the 3 unit paper so hard? (3 Viewers)

[Raginsheep]

If other average students can only do something similar, then yes, you can get that band E3.

 

[Forbidden.]

If other average students can only do something similar, then yes, you can get that band E3.

Then how inferior must my performance be to score Band E2 or E1 ? Not that I want to.
Otherwise how well must I perform to earn Band E3, considering difficulty of next years Ext. 1 Maths exam is unknown.

 

[housemouse]

You pass and you still get at least 70.

 

[Raginsheep]

Then how inferior must my performance be to score Band E2 or E1 ? Not that I want to.
Otherwise how well must I perform to earn Band E3, considering difficulty of next years Ext. 1 Maths exam is unknown.

There are countless threads in the maths forums asking "zomg.....what raw marks will get me E4 in maths!". Read them.

Best way to think of it is that the bands are an indication of your position relative to the rest state. Getting 83/84 for the 2007 MX1 paper means jack shit if everyone else gets 84/84. Likewise, getting 20/84 is also a meaningless, arbitrary number, if others can only get 10/84.

 

[ladynight]

I only answered half the paper. And of that half I probably ony got half of it correct. I got put off by that exam paper, which pretty much affected my perception on all the other exams ~sigh~

Reading this made me feel better though:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/maths-exam-too-hard--students/2006/11/01/1162339918491.html

I can understand that it was designed for both 3 and 4 unit kids and that the greater the difficulty the greater the spread of marks. I believe it is just as true that if a paper is too easy too many kids will get good marks - hence not so good spread. This is also correct if a paper is too hard, as too many kids who would otherwise expect a good mark will be clumped with those who would usually get a bad mark - once again a bad spread.

 

[Shrikar]

Does that mean that it will be easier for those doing the 3 unit exam next year? Hope so.

 

[Riviet]

Does that mean that it will be easier for those doing the 3 unit exam next year? Hope so.

Possibly but don't worry about that. You have a whole year to develop your skills and work on them.

 

[SoulSearcher]

Does that mean that it will be easier for those doing the 3 unit exam next year? Hope so.

Does it matter? Try your hardest to understand the concepts, and you won't have to rely on the test being easy to do well.

 

[Trebla]

Dunno why I just realised now, but the very first question of this year's paper is almost exactly same as the very first question of last year's paper, it's just expressed in a different arrangement but essentially the answer to both are identical. What's weird is this year it was worth two marks and last year it was worth one mark.....lol